Description

Twenty-five years on from "Less Than Zero", we pick up again with Clay. In 1985, Bret Easton Ellis shocked, stunned and disturbed with "Less Than Zero", his "extraordinarily accomplished first novel" ("New Yorker"), successfully chronicling the frightening consequences of unmitigated hedonism within the ranks of the ethically bereft youth of 80s Los Angeles. Twenty-five years later, Ellis returns to those same characters - to Clay and the band of infamous teenagers whose lives weave sporadically through his - but now, they face an even greater period of disaffection: their own middle age. Clay seems to have moved on - he's become a successful screenwriter - but when he returns from New York to Los Angeles, to help cast his new movie, he's soon drifting through a long-familiar circle. Blair, his vulnerable former girlfriend, is now married to Trent - still a bisexual philanderer - and their Beverly Hills parties attract excessive levels of fame and fortune.
Clay's childhood friend Julian is a recovering addict running an ultra-discreet, high-class escort service, and their old dealer Rip, reconstructed and face-lifted nearly beyond recognition, is involved in activities far more sinister than those of his notorious past. After a meeting with a gorgeous but talentless actress determined to win a role in his movie, Clay finds himself connected with Kelly Montrose, a producer whose gruesomely violent death is suddenly very much the talk of the town. As his seemingly endless proclivity for betrayal leads him to be drawn further and further into this ominous case it looks like he will face far more serious consequences than ever before.show more

Review quote

"This sequel is very much on target...[Ellis] uses the thriller framework to infuse nerve-rending unease into this look at Tinseltown mores." --"Entertainment Weekly" "Taut and ultimately terrifying....In six novels, the author has emerged as one of the most gifted and serious novelists working in America today." --"Financial Times", London "Enough talk of [Ellis's] literary genius, let's call him what he really is: a terrific horror writer. . . . An absolute creepfest [and] a festival of panting paranoia."--"Chicago Sun-Times" "Brutally conceived, and effectively done....There is no doubt that Ellis retains the ability to startle and disquiet." --"The Times Literary Supplement", London "Arrestingly spare ... will leave you feeling bruised, guarded and a little nervous about noises at night." --"Time Out", Neshow more